There will be no 21-gun salute, guard of honour or marching band to mark
Xi Jinping’
s arrival at Sunnylands in ­California on Friday. A simple handshake is all the Chinese leader can expect from United States ­President
Barack Obama
to officially open their two-day summit.

This lack of formality, however, should not be mistaken for a lack of ambition. Quite the opposite. While Xi’s American stopover is not a state visit, it is being likened to the 1986 Reykjavik summit between US President
Ronald Reagan
and Soviet leader
Mikhail Gorbachev
.

Such historical comparisons are always fraught – especially given Reykjavik concluded without an agreement on nuclear disarmament – but it does show this is not just another talkfest.

“Both leaders are trying to find a way to have a different strategic conversation," says
Jonathan Pollack
, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. “They are trying to find a way to deal with their differences."

The choice of venue should help.

While it’s hardly neutral ground, the Sunnylands ranch, outside Los Angeles, is ideal for the type of relaxed interaction that has so far eluded previous Chinese and US leaders.

The winter residence of the late publishing tycoon and power broker
Walter Annenberg
and his wife Leonore is something to behold.

Designed by modernist architect Archibald Quincy Jones, it is often described as a West Coast version of Camp David – the President’s official retreat outside Washington.

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It is the type of place where world leaders can get to know each other while casting a line in one of the 11 man-made lakes stocked with bass and trout.

Or they could have a casual chat on the ranch’s nine-hole golf course, where Dwight Eisenhower liked to play.

For after-dinner conversations there’s the Annenbergs’ collection of impressionist masterpieces, Ming vases and rare Chinese artefacts, which dot the 1858-square-metre house – Obama will be the eighth US ­President to visit.

It is hoped this relaxed atmosphere will allow the two leaders every chance to forge a new era in relations.

Xi likes to call it a “new type of great power relationship", but it’s actually far more basic than this.

Creating strategic trust

Like the Reykjavik Summit, which laid the groundwork for nuclear disarmament, it’s hoped the Sunnylands meeting can halt a slide towards conflict between the US and China.

“The big question is how do these two large and complex societies manage to avoid a conflict," Pollack says.

So while cyber-hacking, the North Korean nuclear crisis, territorial disputes in the East China Sea, the US pivot to Asia and trade disputes are likely to dominate the two-day meeting, it’s this bigger issue that will sit above specific points of disagreement.

A semblance of “strategic trust" is what both sides desire.

This has been badly lacking in recent years, as both countries have become increasingly strident in their rhetoric and distant at the highest level.

Indeed, the US and China can’t even agree on how an emergency phone line should be operated.

The defence hotline, which is designed to prevent small flare-ups getting out of control, has been in place since 2008.

But Beijing has twice cut the line during this time, in protest, and it hardly operates at a high level.

As it stands now, the US Military can only ring into the telecommunications directorate (switchboard) at the Zhongnanhai leadership compound in Beijing.

The operator can then decide whether to forward the call onto the Department of Defence or the command centre of the ­People’s Liberation Army.

This is vastly different to the hotline that began operating between Washington and Moscow after the Cuban Missile Crisis.

This refusal by the Chinese to even hand out their phone number symbolises the deep mistrust between the two powers.

And so, simply scheduling a meeting at such short notice was an achievement in itself and shows a greater level of desire to at least talk.

Breaking the ice

Earlier signs of such a desire could be seen in the number of US political leaders received by Xi.

In recent months, the President has met US National Security Advisor Tom Donilon, Secretary of State John Kerry and even the mayor of Los Angles, Antonio Villaraigosa.

The so called “shirt sleeve" summit in California has been added to the end of Xi’s trip to Trinidad and Tobago, Costa Rica and Mexico, which began at the end of last week.

Leaks out of the US suggest it was Xi who began pushing for the get-together in December. This is impossible to check as the Chinese administration does not “background" journalists or comment on its inner workings.

The Obama administration was said to be initially reluctant as it wanted to give Xi more time to consolidate his power and lay out an agenda.

This has happened more rapidly than most experts thought possible and so, according to the leaks, Obama proposed the meeting at Sunnylands.

There was also pressure on Obama not to wait until the Group of 20 Summit in September for the leader’s first official meeting.

The Chinese state media has described the two-day get-together as “unprecedented" and, for once, they couldn’t be accused of bias.

Xi’s style more casual

Xi has largely done away with this tradition, however, and has become something of a populist since becoming General Secretary of the Communist Party in November.

He often appears in the state media dressed in casual clothes and occasionally mixes with “real people".

This is viewed as a sign of confidence, which is partly a result of his unique political rise.

Unlike his predecessor, Xi draws power from many different factions within the ­ruling party.

As the Princeling son of a revolutionary General, Xi has his natural base in the “Red Aristocracy". But he also has strong ties to the military, having worked for former Defence Minister
Geng Biao
early in his career.

The new Chinese leader is also seen as an economic reformer, but a political conservative and so appears to have won the support of both political hard liners and economic liberals.

Confident in his leadership at home, Xi has sought a greater role for China on the world stage.

But his more amenable manner should not be mistaken for meekness.

Indeed, the issues dividing China and the US today are at least as large as those between the US and Soviets during the cold war – albeit without the imminent prospect of a nuclear attack.

And while those unnamed sources within the US administration are playing down the prospect of any significant agreement from the meeting, there are hopes it will be the start of a better period in relations.

“I think it will be more focused on economics than security in the classic sense," Pollack says.

“And yes there will be more personal warmth between the two leaders, but the bar has been set pretty low."